


Billy

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 08:42:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19353472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: “Billy. I realized I’ve been calling you Billy in my brain, sometimes. When you’re on the monitor and you’re being affable and you look like a Billy, sometimes. I wanted to try it out,” Mac shrugged, never freeing his arm from her weight. “What do you think, then?”





	Billy

      Feeling the burn at the edge of her eyelids that promised she’d be asleep soon, Mackenzie leaned more of her weight into Will’s shoulder, nudging herself just so to appropriate some of his side of the bed.   
  
      After work, and dinner, and after-dinner drinks, and after-drinks sex, Mac was the perfect combination of full and happy and tired, and Will was the perfect body pillow after a long day. She felt comfortable, and  safe, and even a little loved, as he warmed her feet with his in the dark.   
  
    “I love you, Billy,” she whispered to his shoulder, unsure if either of them were still awake.   
  
    “Billy?” Will snorted in the dark. Billy McAvoy was somebody’s seven year old nephew, he was a mid-western boy who remembered how to turn on a lawn mower. Will McAvoy was a grown man trying to fit in with the media elite, counting the black ties in his closet. But sure, she loved Billy...  
  
    “Billy. I realized I’ve been calling you Billy in my brain, sometimes. When you’re on the monitor and you’re being affable and you look like a Billy, sometimes. I wanted to try it out,” Mac shrugged, never freeing his arm from her weight. “What do you think, then?”   
  
    It was very late, and he was very tired, and the insane thing about Mackenzie McHale was that she had more drive in her than the energizer bunny, she did crosswords to wind her brain down, she argued with the television at two o clock in the morning, she asked him crazy, wandering questions long after their lights were out.   
  
    “I like it,” he decided; from her lips, he liked just about anything. Even the crazy, wandering questions long after their lights were out. He liked Billy. “It’s not the worst thing you’ve ever called me,” he teased her. They teased eachother, now; he couldn’t remember the last time he slept with someone he could tease.   
  
    “You _were_ being a bit of a shit that night,” Mac defended herself, ready to go to the tape if she had to.   
  
    “An affable shit?” Will pressed his luck and teased, again. She was beautiful, smart, a little younger than him. He hadn’t meant to fall in love with her, it had just sort of happened. He couldn’t stop himself.   
  
    “Perhaps.” Mac gave him that one, and the burn in her eyes bit again. “I think I’m asleep,” she whispered.   
  
    “I don’t think you are just yet,” Will whispered back, and felt a nudge at his side. One of her deadly pointy elbows. “I love you too, Mac,” he kept his voice low.   
  
    “I’ve been thinking that, too,” waking herself up a little, Mac remembered what started the whole thing. “I’ve been calling you Billy in my own head, and I’ve… well, I’ve been telling you I love you. But I guess I haven’t really done either, yet,” she tried to relax her body next to his. They’ve been intimate. They worked together. They shared their opinions on everything from headlines to the size of the spoon they preferred to stir coffee. But Mackenzie hadn’t been able to share with him the one thing she was sure he’d be interested in.   
  
    “Well, now you’ve done both, and how do you feel?” Pressing a kiss to her head, Will hadn’t waited for the l word from any other woman. But this woman? Sometimes he could hardly believe she _liked_ him, let alone…   
  
    “I think I could’ve done better, Billy, really,” Mac inched up in the bed, kissing the underside of his chin. He shaved every morning, she watched him, and sometimes at night his chin still felt just the tiniest bit scratchy.   
  
      “You could go again,” he laughed, “I’m not stopping you.”   
  
      “I love you,” Mac whispered, closing her eyes, finally. “I love you.”


End file.
